How easy was it for you to leave Ed Sheeran’s Chantry Park show?

An estimated 40,000 people were at the first Ed Sheeran homecoming concert - but there were no travel problems for those leaving Chantry Park according to Ipswich council and the police. Pictures: Zakary Walters

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Organisers who have planned the access to and from Ed Sheeran’s Chantry Park concerts in Ipswich have been letting out a huge sigh of relief after the first night went off very smoothly.

"Quite honestly, it was better than we really thought it could be - now we're just hoping that it continues that way for the next three nights," said an Ipswich council spokesman after all the reports from the streets had come in.

A police spokesman said that while traffic had obviously been busier than normal at the end of the night, all the travel plans seemed to have worked well and everything ran as smoothly as hoped.

The town's railway station was very busy with trains to London, Colchester and Norwich leaving in quick succession in the 90 minutes after the end of the concert.

One passenger did tweet a picture claiming that the situation was "a disgrace" but the borough spokesman said they were not aware of any rail passengers being left behind or missing their trains.

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A spokeswoman for Greater Anglia said they had 5,000 people through the station after the concert. All the trains left on time, everyone with a ticket was able to travel - and their staff felt the whole operation worked well.

She said: "We did have to set up a queuing system to ensure the safety of everyone, but all the passengers got on a train to the correct destination and everything was cleared by midnight. We are pleased at how it all went."

Hadleigh Road is closed until Tuesday and London Road is closed for three hours at the end of the shows - and Ranelagh Road was also closed to traffic for a short time as concert goers walked back to the town centre.

But this caused little serious problem for people leaving the show.

The borough spokesman said: "It looks as if everyone had got away within 90 minutes to two hours of the concert finishing and that's really what we were hoping for. It looks as if all the measures that had been put in worked well.

"Now that it has worked well on the first night we will be hoping that continues - but clearly it is something we will continue to monitor until the last audience member has left the area on Monday evening."

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